Homeless, alcoholic and unemployed people were sent to concentration camps

17th May 1934

Jewish persecution

An order was issued which prohibited Jewish people from having health insurance

15th September 1935

Nuremberg Laws

The Nuremberg Laws were introduced. These laws were designed to take away Jewish rights of citizenship and included orders that:

Jews are no longer allowed to be German citizens.
Jews cannot marry non-Jews.
Jews cannot have sexual relations with non-Jews.

13th March 1938

Austrian Jews persecuted

Following Anschluss which joined Germany and Austria, Jews in Austria were persecuted and victimised.

8th July 1938

Munich synagogue destroyed

The Jewish synagogue in Munich was destroyed

5th October 1938

Jewish passports stamped with ‘J’

The passports of all Austrian and German Jews had to be stamped with a large red letter ‘J’

9th November 1938

Kristallnacht

A night of extreme violence.

Approximately 100 Jews were murdered,
20,000 German and Austrian Jews arrested and sent to camps, Hundreds of synagogues burned, and the
Windows of Jewish shops all over Germany and Austria smashed.

12th November 1938

Jews fined

Jews were made to pay one billion marks for the damage caused by Kristallnacht.

15th November 1938

Jewish children expelled from schools

An order was issued that stated that Jewish children should not be allowed to attend non-Jewish German schools

12th October 1939

Austrian and Czech Jews deported

Jews living in Austria and Czechoslovakia were sent to Poland

23rd November 1939

Yellow Star introduced

Jews in Poland were forced to sew a yellow star onto their clothes so that they could be easily identified.

Early 1940

European Jews persecuted

Jews in German occupied countries were persecuted by the Nazis and many were sent to concentration camps.

20th May 1940

Auschwitz

A new concentration camp, Auschwitz, opened

15th November 1940

Warsaw Ghetto

The Warsaw Ghetto was sealed off. There were around 400,000 Jewish people inside

July 1941

Einsatzgruppen

The Einsatzgruppen (killing squads) began rounding up and murdering Jews in Russia. 33,000 Jews are murdered in two days at Babi Yar near Kiev.

31st July 1941

‘Final Solution’

Reinhard Heydrich chosen to implement ‘Final Solution’

8th December 1941

First ‘Death Camp’

The first ‘Death Camp’ was opened at Chelmno.

January 1942

Mass-gassing

Mass-gassing of Jews began at Auschwitz-Birkenau

Summer 1942

European Jews gassed

Jews from all over occupied Europe were sent to ‘Death Camps’

29th January 1943

Gypsies sent to camps

An order was issued for gypsies to be sent to concentration camps.

19th April – 16th May 1943

Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

An order was issued to empty the Warsaw Ghetto and deport the inmates to Treblinka. Following the deportation of some Warsaw Jews, news leaked back to those remaining in the Ghetto of mass killings.

A group of about 750 mainly young people decided that they had nothing to lose by resisting deportation. Using weapons smuggled into the Ghetto they fired on German troops who tried to round up inmates for deportation.

They held out for nearly a month before they were taken by the Nazis and shot or sent to death camps.

Late 1943

‘Death Camps’ closed

With the Russians advancing from the East, many ‘Death Camps’ were closed and evidence destroyed.

14th May – 8th July 1944

Hungarian Jews sent to Auschwitz

440,000 Hungarian Jews were transported to Auschwitz

30th October 1944

Auschwitz

The gas chambers at Auschwitz were used for the last time

27th January 1945

‘Death Marches’

Many remaining camps were closed and evidence of their existence destroyed. Those who had survived the camps so far were taken on forced ‘Death Marches’.